Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature

The Governor General's Award for English-language children's writing is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a children's book written in English. It is one of four children's book awards among the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, one each for writers and illustrators of English- and French-language books. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council.

In name, this award is part of the Governor General's Award program only from 1987 but there was a single award for "Juvenile" literature from 1949 to 1958, and the four present-day "Children's" awards were established in 1975 under a Canada Council name. In the event, the "Canada Council" and "Governor General's" awards have recognized writing in an English-language children's book every year from 1975.

Two of the CCCLP-winning English-language writers also won the CLA Young Adult Book Award, recognizing the same book, namely Monica Hughes in 1983 and Janet Lunn in 1987. That is, Janet Lunn and Shadow in Hawthorn Bay (1986) won both the CLA awards for children's and young-adult books.

According to one WorldCat library record The Trouble With Princesses (McClelland & Stewart, 1980) "retells stories about Northwest Coast princesses and compares them with similar Old World princesses", . For their collaboration Christie Harris won the CCCLP prize for English-language writing and Douglas Tait won the CLA award for children's book illustration, the 1981 Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award.

Children's literature (writing)

Four books listed below, winners of the English-language writing award under the "Governor General's" name, were also named CLA Book of the Year for Children: Bedard 1991, Wynne-Jones 1994, Porter 2006, and Nielsen 2013.

| Mission Impossible

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Tess

| Out of the Dark

| RanVan A Worthy Opponent

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 1996

| Ghost Train

|Winner

| Keri

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Bottom Drawer

| Glory Days and Other Stories

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 1997

| Awake and Dreaming

|Winner

| One Thing That's True

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Wish Me Luck

| Dippers

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 1998

|Winner

| Janey's Girl

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Make or Break Spring

| Bat Summer

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 1999

|Winner

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Hate You

| Each One Special

2000s

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" width="100%"

|+Award winners, 2000–2009

!Year

!width="40%"|Author

!width="50%"|Title

!Result

!Ref.

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2000

| Looking for X

|Winner

| Being with Henry

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Charlie Wilcox

| Kalifax

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2001

| Dust

|Winner

| Mary Ann Alice

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Before Wings

| In Spite of Killer Bees

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2002

| True Confessions of a Heartless Girl

|Winner

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Parvana's Journey

| Hana's Suitcase

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2003

|Stitches

|Winner

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Theories of Relativity

| Ann and Seamus

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2004

|Airborn

|Winner

| Heck Superhero

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Esther

| Red Land, Yellow River: A Story from the Cultural Revolution

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2005

|Winner

| After

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Hannah Waters and the Daughter of Johann Sebastian Bach

| Mella and the N'anga: An African Tale

| Swimming in the Monsoon Sea

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2006

|Pirate's Passage

|Winner

| Ingrid and the Wolf

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Skinnybones and the Wrinkle Queen

| Me and the Blondes

| Friendships

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2007

|Gemini Summer

|Winner

| Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose: The Story of a Painting

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| rowspan=4|

| Elijah of Buxton

| Kanada

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2008

|Winner

| Libertad

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Shimmerdogs

| Child of Dandelions

| Skim

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2009

|Greener Grass: The Famine Years

|Winner

| Home Free

| Me, Myself and Ike

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Tyranny

| Free as a Bird

| Scars

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2011

|From Then to Now: A Short History of the World

|Winner

| A Hare in the Elephant’s Trunk

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| No Ordinary Day

| This Dark Endeavour

| Blink & Caution

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2012

|Winner

| Seraphina

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| rowspan="4" |

| Under the Moon

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2013

|Winner

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| rowspan="4" |

| Becoming Holmes

| Once Upon a Northern Light

| Counting Back from Nine

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2014

|When Everything Feels Like the Movies

|Winner

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| rowspan="3" |

| Jeremy Stone

| and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley

| Skraelings

| This One Summer

| Audrey (cow)

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Are You Seeing Me?

| We Are All Made of Molecules

| Young Man with Camera

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2016

|Calvin

|Winner

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Once, in a Town Called Moth

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2017

|Winner

| Hit the Ground Running

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Those Who Run in the Sky

| Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2018

|Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster

|Winner

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Learning to Breathe

| and Josh Greenhut

| Winnie's Great War

| Ebb & Flow

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2019

|Stand on the Sky

|Winner

| Break in Case of Emergency

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| Cold White Sun

| Girl of the Southern Sea

2020s

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible" width="100%"

|+Award winners, 2020–present

!Year

!width="40%"|Author

!width="50%"|Title

!Result

!Ref

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2020

|Winner

| Nevers

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| rowspan="4" |

| Pine Island Home

| and Tara Anderson

| Harvey Holds His Own

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2021

|Firefly

|Winner

| Peter Lee's Notes from the Field

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| rowspan="4" |

| Unravel

| Blood Like Magic

| and Kevin Sylvester

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="5" | 2022

|Winner

| Step

| rowspan="4" |Finalist

| rowspan="4" |

| Sorry for Your Loss

| Urchin

! rowspan="5"| 2023

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Sarah Everett

| style="background:#FAEB86" | The Probability of Everything

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Winner

| style="background:#FAEB86" |

| Michelle Kadarusman

| Berani

| rowspan=4 | Finalist

| rowspan=4 |

| Zoulfa Katouh

| As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow

| Iain Lawrence

| Fire on Headless Mountain

| Kim Spencer

| Weird Rules to Follow

! rowspan="5"| 2024

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Li Charmaine Anne

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Crash Landing

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Winner

| style="background:#FAEB86" |

| Cherie Dimaline

| Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix

| rowspan=4| Finalist

| rowspan=4|

| Shari Green

| Song of Freedom, Song of Dreams

| June Hur

| A Crane Among Wolves

| Kristy Jackson

| Mortified

! rowspan="5"| 2025

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Heather Smith

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Tig

| style="background:#FAEB86" | Winner

| style="background:#FAEB86" |

| Deborah Ellis

| The Outsmarters

| rowspan=4| Finalist

| rowspan=4|

| Kenneth Oppel

| Best of All Worlds

| Léa Taranto

| A Drop in the Ocean

| Richard Van Camp

| Beast

Governor General's Award for English-language children's literature

Children's literature (writing)

2000s

2020s

See also

References